


Spin of the Dice

by GeminiStep



Category: The Losers (2010)
Genre: M/M, Temporary Character Death, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-03
Updated: 2010-10-03
Packaged: 2017-10-12 09:55:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/123620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeminiStep/pseuds/GeminiStep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes Fate several tries to get the story right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spin of the Dice

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own.
> 
> I do not own the Losers in any way and are just playing with them for my own entertainment.
> 
> The style is slightly different from what I normally write.

The first spin of the dice starts like this:

Two children cling to each other in fright as their parents start another brutal brawl.  After the pair tire of throwing punches the woman draws a knife.  Knives are common weapons in the couple’s nightly fights.  This will be the only time a gun is drawn. 

It will take twenty minutes after the first bullet is fired for the police to arrive.  By then it will be too late.

The woman lunges at her husband, knocks his arm aside and embeds the knife into his shoulder.  The gun fires, but is no longer pointed at the woman.  Neither realizes that the bullet has hit their son as he pushes his older sister out of the way.  His blood never does come out of the dress the daughter wears.  He dies in his sister’s arms, unnoticed by either parent.

Years later the daughter, now a mother herself, passes a pregnant African woman in the streets.  They pause, feeling as though they should know each other.  Both soon shake the fleeting thought and move on.  The mother is going to the championship soccer match her daughter is playing in.

The pregnant woman is on her way to the hospital.  Her husband’s physical therapy for the day is almost done and the doctors will finally be fitting him with a pair of prosthetic legs. 

It’s a shame the rest of his unit didn’t survive their mission.  That new red-headed tech simply wasn’t good enough to get around the security.  The unit set off an alarm he couldn’t disarm and paid the price.  She is sad about their loss, especially for the Hispanic man.  It always seemed as though he were missing a piece of himself, something that could have grounded him.  She hopes he found that piece in death.

~~~~~~~~

The players were wrong.  Step back and toss the dice again.

~~~~~~~~

The man in the cowboy hat walks down the street.  He has been unemployed since he was discharged from the military.  The last sets of psychological tests had the shrinks recommending he be taken out of active duty pending further review.  The psychologists claim that he is too introverted, too attached to his guns, and will soon have a breakdown. The military decided to discharge him instead.    

It is cheaper for those in charge to get rid of him.  After all, there are plenty of people learning how to be a sniper.  Just because his skills are far above most of the other snipers doesn’t mean they should risk a mission on his supposed unstable mentality.  One man really doesn’t change mission outcomes all that much, except for ill.

The man’s been edgy since his discharge.  It feels as though he needs to be somewhere important.  He’s sure he’d be at that place if those idiots had let him continue his career.  He feels lost without the purpose the military gave him.

A television playing in a store front catches his attention.  It is another military funeral.  The reporter informs the public that the young soldier, a tech specialist, has been killed by an enemy his team’s sniper hadn’t noticed. 

The Hispanic man snorts, the first sound he has made in a week.  Had he been part of that team he knows he wouldn’t have missed the extra shooter.  He turns away as the soldier’s sister and niece throw flowers, oddly enough petunias, into the young man’s grave.

He notices a sign in a toy factory advertising help wanted as he continues down the street.  He acts on one of the rare impulses he gets and applies for a job.  He will end up working for that toy factory for years.  For some unknown reason he will occasionally feel as though there should be another man working with him, someone he would count as a friend.  He usually shakes away the feeling and continues on with his work.

The man will live his life alone, partaking in a rare one night stand, but never enter into a relationship with anyone.  He doesn’t make any close friends and those he does make are more like acquaintances than friends.  Years later, before he even reaches fifty, the silent man will be killed when he swerves his car to avoid a child that has run into the road.  No one will attend his funeral.

~~~~~~~~

The players were in the incorrect locations.  Try another roll of the dice.

~~~~~~~~

The three soldiers are forced to kneel at gunpoint as their commanding officer stands across from them in the clearing of containers in the shipping yard.  The man with the damaged hand stands next to the restrained leader, triumphant at getting his way again.  He always wins no matter who the opponent is.  Special Operations soldiers are as easy to kill as Bolivian drug lords.  He finds it funny that daughter of the last drug lord he had killed later died in a bathroom during a shootout with these same soldiers.

The traitor walks over to his former team mates and pulls out his favorite knife.  He is ordered to kill them himself and he doesn’t hesitate at the orders.  This is a business situation, not personal, and the command comes from his new boss. 

He doesn’t yet realize he won’t leave the port alive.  He will die as badly as his former friend warned him about.  His new boss has already ordered the rest of his subordinates to open fire on the traitor as soon as the others are dead.  After all, he is a risk.  A traitor once can become a traitor again.

The father-to-be dies first.  His wedding ring will later be returned to his wife and newborn son.  She will be told it was found wedged into a corner of the helicopter wreckage.  The forensic team found it as they were investigating it.  She will recognize the lie, but will be unable to find proof of it.

The youngest dies next, the blade not cleaned of his friend’s blood before being turned on him.  He has been gagged by the annoyed gunmen surrounding him so his last words will never be known.  He does manage to turn enough to look at his silent friend’s eyes.  He tries to communicate all the unsaid words and emotions that he hadn’t been brave enough to express before.  As he fades away on the blade of the knife the anguish on the silent man’s face tells him that his love was returned in full.

The final soldier of the kneeling three goes crazy as the second man falls.  Those holding him in place have to hit him across the back of his head to stop him.  He falls unconscious; his signature hat rolling away.  One of the gunmen will later pick it up and keep it once the traitor has finished with its previous owner.

Their commander stands in shock at the murder of his friends by his best friend.  It’s all over and he failed.  He doesn’t even react when the damaged man pulls out a gun and shoots him in the head.

Thousands of miles away two women begin to cry, although they will never understand why.

~~~~~~~~

The wrong path was chosen.  Recast the dice.

~~~~~~~~

It takes two months after the death of the man with the damaged hand for the unit to be officially pardoned.

The press release reads that the team has just been rescued from the Bolivian drug lord after being taken prisoner months before and tortured to try to get information on the military.  The explosion of the compound and the deaths of the twenty-five children and the soldiers in the helicopter will be explained as being set up by the Bolivian to hide the capture.  The military claims they were rescued with the aid of the Bolivian’s daughter, but the scarred man died in the escape.  All five survivors will be billed as heroes.

The unit knows the truth, but also recognizes that this lie is necessary if they are to get their lives back.  They are forced to sign a mountain of non-disclosure forms to keep them quiet about the true events of those months they were on the run.

All of them remain close even as the years pass.

The new father goes to work designing sleeker and faster cars.  He will earn a fortune and become a legend of the automobile industry.  He and his wife will name the members of his unit godparents to their children.  Their children and grandchildren will call the others uncles and aunt. 

The commanding officer goes back into the military since that is all he knows.  He will not be allowed back into the field but he takes up a post training soldiers going into special operations.  He is surprised to find that he likes his new life, though he will miss going on missions for years.  The soldiers trained by him will end up surviving for longer than other soldiers, as well as being more successful in their missions. 

There will be rumors over the years that he is dating a dangerous Bolivian woman, one who is said to be instrumental in the takedown of many corrupt leaders.  Nothing is officially known, but the members of his last active unit will smile at a private joke when they overhear people talking about it.  Occasionally the youngest will quip that at least that woman got the attempted murder out of the way early in the relationship before he tangents off into a new conversational direction.

The final two soldiers move in together.  They will take the honorable discharge and leave the military.  The horrors of their last mission will stay with them, but together they lessen the pain.  They make their relationship official once they are out of the military, although the younger had confessed his feelings while they were on the run.  In typical fashion, the tech-savvy soldier gives a half hour monologue on the nature of love before telling his companion he loves him.  The other man will then pull him in for a passionate kiss, cutting off the flow of words.  They will live out their lives together after committing to each other in a surprisingly quiet ceremony. 

The more outgoing of the two will make a fortune in computer hardware and software designs, especially in the areas of security.  The quieter of the two will go into consulting in security as well.  They become known for choosing clients that aren’t run by corrupt peoples, although no one is sure how they can tell which is which.  Much of their money will go to charities helping underprivileged, abused, and ill children.

Five decades will pass for the couple in this way.  They will make quite the odd pair.  One of them never seems to fall quiet for more than ten seconds and can’t seem to turn his brain off.  The other is quiet to the point where casual acquaintances occasionally think he is mute.  This mixing of quirks works for them and while their relationship will not always be perfect, it will be far better than anything either had dreamed of.

In the end they will die within a week of each other from old age.  The funerals are held together and they are buried next to each other.  The mourners are made up of all their nieces, nephews, and godchildren, along with all of those children’s children. 

~~~~~~~~

The play has been made. The dice can be set down.


End file.
